When you smell the Glühwein on the air and the radio station plays Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas you know the festive season is here and it is time to reflect on another eventful year.

In 2023, optimism returned to our lives with the official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The last three years tested our regulatory system to its limits, but we have come out stronger, more coordinated both at European Union (EU) and international level, and better prepared for future crises. Today, we continue to learn its lessons while remembering that for many people life has not returned to normal.

The key crisis lesson for our network is that collaboration is king; if you do not have a culture of close collaboration closely with your partners, it can be incredibly difficult to address challenges when they emerge. Last year, the EU faced a crippling shortage of basic medicines: patients struggled to get access to simple antibiotics. As part of our extended mandate, we…